Tasaf revises conditional cash transfer payment system

The Tanzania Social Action Fund (Tasaf) is currently revisiting the payment system for beneficiaries of the Community-Based Conditional Cash Transfer (CB-CCT) programme to make it more user-friendly.

Speaking during the closing of a three-day face-to-face forum which drew together participants from 10 countries in Dar es Salaam on Thursday, Tasaf Acting System Manager Amadeus Kamagenge said funds were channelled through accounts managed by community management committees (CMCs) that made payments to the beneficiaries.

“We are conducting a study to establish better and fast ways of making payments to the beneficiaries,” he said.

Kamagenge explained that to date there were many ways of money transfer such as cash transfer via mobile phones, which he said the money could be transferred directly to communities that would transfer the money to households or transfer it to the households themselves,” he said.

He said the forum had helped them learn so many things, which would help them improve their programmes.
Kamagenge said participants commended Tasaf for successful implementation of the programme including enrolment of targeted people.

He said most of the time the government had good intention of helping its people but at the end those, who benefited were not the targeted ones but for this programme it had not been the case.

Meanwhile, the CB-CCT programme beneficiaries have been challenged to use some of the money disbursed to them to establish small projects to maintain themselves.

The CB-CCT programme is being implemented by Tasaf as a pilot programme in Bagamoyo, Kibaha and Chamwino districts.
The remarks were made on Wednesday by one of the participants of a face-to-face forum on community of practice cash transfers and conditional cash transfers, Mvambi Mongare, during their field trip to Mpiji village in Kibaha District.

Mongare, who is Children’s Principal Officer from Kenya, told the beneficiaries that whatever amount they received through the programme they should spend some of it on small businesses for their future.

“You are supposed to understand that you will not be given money throughout your lives, thus you should spend some of it on small projects, which will help you in the future,” Mongare said.

He said the programme had been implemented in the village for more than two years but they had been using the money for other needs without investing some of it, calling on them to form groups, which would enable them to establish projects.

He noted that even individual beneficiaries could buy chickens or goats and keep them and they could thus help resolve some problems in case of emergency.

Citing Kenya as an example, Mongare said there were some beneficiaries of a related programme, who had managed to build houses through the programme.

For her part, Tasaf Monitoring and Evaluation Officer Patricia Matogo said Tasaf through its economic enterprises section, had conducted a study to establish economic activities, which could be carried out at village level.

“We hired a consultant to conduct the study and it has been completed. What has remained is the implementation of the programme," she said.

According to the study, there was a need for conducting a training programme to build beneficiaries’ capacity on issues related to business.

Briefing CoP delegation on the implementation of the CB–CCT pilot programme in Kibaha district, Tasaf Focal Point programme senior official Costa Kauki said 901 households with 2,331 people had been enrolled in the programme.

He said to date 12 transfers amounting to 205,890,500/- had been made.